The Hunters Hunted

A gang of Spyrer brats have descended Downhive to go hunting for sport. They've been wreaking havoc for the last few cycles, killing and and mutilating and maiming for giggles. Local guilders have put a price on their heads. Most who have lost loved ones, though, would be willing to take their heads for free...

Someone had discovered their means of egress - an Arvus Lighter - locked away in a secluded hanger.  One only needs to wait until they come to leave...

Last game with the three kids for this week, I wanted to try out the Spyrers. The Spyrers objective it to make it to the Lighter. The gangs' objective is to make sure they never do. The Lighter was locked in a hanger - if the gangs can bypass the locks they COULD do damage to the Lighter, but it was fairly tough... If they did destroy it, the Spyrers could escape by heading back to the left they started from and find another way out from another level.



Explaining the scenario to the kids.



The Spyrers in their entry point - a cargo left.



The Spyrers getaway vehicle - and Arvus Lighter secured in a locked hanger.



Finnegan's Genestealer Cultists.



Keira's Escher gang (after yesterday's game she was reduced to FOUR active fighters!!)



My Cawdor gang that Ian was using

 

Relative starting positions.

 

Spyrers exit the elevator and take a few shots at some cultists lurking around a nearby corner.

 

Some of the cultists tried to flank the Spyrers and shoot them as they go by. The Magos and two Hybrid Acolytes break into the hanger - so much for being a SECURE hiding place for their getaway ride!?

 

Escher gangers walked out into a hall to find Cawdor Gangers coming their way! Shots were not immediately exchanged!?



Spyerers stack behind a security door, expecting trouble beyond.



Genestealers Cultists cautiously approach the Spyrers under cover after taking fire from them.



Finnegan was really missing his Abberant which was sitting out this game as he figured it could have really wrecked the Arvus Lighter with it's Power Hammer!



Cawdor gangers all in a nice neat line, waiting in a corridor...



Escher gangers went back the way they came. A couple of the Cawdor Gangers followed.



Genestealer Cultists move up behind security door.



Spyrers take down the corridor. One Cawdor Ganger seriously injured, two others pinned.



The Escher gang enters the hangar followed by a couple of Cawdor Gangers. They notice Cenestealer Cultists at the other end of the hangar, but ignore them and proceed to try and wreck the Arvus Lighter... they manage to do no damage, whatsoever.



The Hybrid Acolytes opened the door and started mixing it up with the Malcadon Spyrers... with the door open, an Escher ganger with a gas sprayer gassed everyone in the hall - including one of the Genestealer Hybrids!



Orrus and Yeld Spyrers thin out their opponents. Both Cawdor and the Genestealer Cultists bottled out after this...



Brutal melee at the hangar entrance - the Jakara Leader and one of the Malcadon Spyrers are down!



Cawdor and Escher gangers shoot at the Arvus... still unable to damage it at all... Though a stray bolder shot from the Cawdor leaders bolter takes down and Escher ganger "by mistake"...



Orrus Spyrer cleaning crew.



Both Maldcadon Spyrers out of action. The Jakara Leader faces the Magos and Hybrid Acolyte on her own!



Yeld Spyrer providing some covering fire.



Escher Gangers turn on the Cawdor gangers shooting them from behind.



Eventually all the Cawdor Gangers split and the Escher Gangers and Genestealer Cultists were fighting it out in the hangar. (Yeld Spyrer was seriously injured and down, the remaining Orrus Spyrer was broken and had run off to a far corner)... So we kind of just called it.



good times seemed to be had by all!

I hadn't really worked out victory conditions and benefits for the victor as I knew this would be our last game for this mini introductory campaign.

I think I'll have to make the Spyrers a little more badass for the October game... or any other time I'm using them as adversaries in an arbitrated narrative scenario like this. Their weapons were pretty effective, but I think they need to be a touch more survivable. The Malcadons I should have give full respirator masks. The leader should have had three Wounds, the rest should have had two...

Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

August's Games.

MORE Necromunda!

The Return of Karloth Valois

Carlota Valois, is the stuff of legend... or... nightmares... or legendary nightmares!? A frightful tale that's passed into legend that parent tell their children to frighten them but no one actually believes anymore... Until he returned from the deep dark depths of THE ABYSS...

We had to cancel Tuesday and Wednesday due to illness... and Thursday... well... still ill... but while I am experiencing some intense discomfort, I'm not all that contagious, so we forged ahead with another game - which was a great way to take my mind off of things!

Instead of doing something simple for our second game ever, like an out-of-the-book scenario or something, I decided I needed to make something up on my own that was a bit more complex to start play-testing some ideas for the Necromunda game weekend in October!

This scenario involved the return of Karloth Valois - a rogue psyker, long thought dead - along with a horde of Plague Zombies! I'm not going to type out the specifics of their stats or abilities or what all the victory points were awarded for... as that's all in a state of flux at the moment... lessons were learned, changes will be made, but overall I thought it was a pretty fun scenario.



The battle area was set up with 8 Sector Mortalis tiles - two wide by four long. Karloth and his zombie horde were set up in one corner and the basic premise was that they had to stop him and his zombies from escaping off the far edge.

They rolled off to see who would deploy first. Highest got to choose where they set up, and could set up in ANY tile other than the one Karloth was set up in. Subsequent players could set up in tiles that were not already occupied, OR that were immediately adjacent to any tiles with another gang set up in (though they could set up in one diagonally adjacent to one). So the first, and to a lesser extent the second, could decide if they wanted to set up closer to Valois or further away. Because victory points were awarded for taking stuff out of action, setting up close could mean getting to take them all out by themselves and reaping all the victory points and Reputation... but it could  also mean being swarmed by an overwhelming number of Zombies while being shot/stabbed in the back by other gangers...



I can't remember who set up first, but Ian (who was playing with my Cawdor Gang) set up closest.



Keira set up her Escher Gang (the Pink Punchers) in the middle distance, and Finnegan's Genestealer Cult set up lurking in the back... ready to cheery-pick any that got through the other gangs.



Karloth and his zombie horde shambles ahead!



Willem Campbell, leader of the Cawdor Gang, attacked by a flaming zombie (which he had, himself, set on fire with his hand flamer). I had to make up rules on the spot for flaming zombies, because the regular "blaze" rule didn't really work - zombies wouldn't care if they were on fire... also, made up some rules for flaming zombies possibly spreading their blaze condition to other combatants they were engaged with...



Zombies, flaming and not-so-flaming swarm the Cawdor gangers.



The Zombies actually set one of the Cawdor Champions on fire! Escher Gangers preparing for their onslaught.



The zombies moved a little faster than people expected. I didn't want to make them TOO slow or it would be too easy to just simply keep shooting and falling back...



Cawdor Gangers desperately fighting for their lives amid the flaming zombies.

Ian had been so smug about being able to catch SO MANY zombies with the flame template of his hand flamer... I think he felt less smug when one of those flaming zombies shambled forward and set his champion on fire and caused him a wound...



Uh-oh... getting a bit close!



A lot of laughs were had.



the Escher gangers tried to fall back and form a line to catch the zombies in a bit of a bottleneck.



Zombies around the Cawdor gang thin out as the horde passes by with Valois.



The Escher gang lost a couple gangers, two more broke and fled their defensive line and, at the end of the turn, the gang bottled out...



The Escher gang leader kept things together for another turn or two, but eventually she failed a cool test to stay on the table and after another turn they'd all left.



One last zombie tying up a LOT of Cawdor gangers.



Valois slipped on by and ended up facing the Genestealer Cultists!



"Wait... where did everybody go!?"



It was hubris, pure hubris that eventually brought Valois down. He'd lost all of his escorting Zombies down and when faced with the Genestelaer cultists thought to himself "I've got THREE attacks, I can totally charge more than one of them" He kind of forgot he only had a 4+ weapon skill and was -1 for each additional fighter he was engaged with beyond the first...



Oh-noooooooooooos....



But it didn't end there.... The scenario only ended if there were no gangs left on the table... or only ONE gang left on the table.



So after dealing with Valois, the Genestealer cult chased down the sole surviving member of the the Cawdor gang - Muriel.



Poor Muriel... chased down this lonely hall and finally taken out of action by a coup-de-gras...

While the Genestelaer Cult was the last gang standing - and gained the most reputation - for taking out Valois (and NOT bottling out!), but the Cawdor Gang ended up "winning" as they'd scored one more victory point - from taking out so many zombies in the early rush...

Fun was had. Important lessons learned. We forge ahead tomorrow with another scenario... Not sure if that's going to be Spyrers... or the Cult of Redemption... or maybe Nemo has had it with Kal Jericho and put and outrageous price on his head that no ganger could ignore! Stay tuned tomorrow to find out what goes down!


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MORE NECROMUNDA!!!